AT&T Increases Activation Fee to $40

In what other business do they offer a product for $200, then when you check out add another $40 because OMG it's so expensive and we forgot to price our products to include employee payroll and the electricity and phone bill?

Or how about advertising a product for 50% off, then you get to the store and they tack on an extra $40 because the advertised discount is more than they can afford?

I heard this in 2010 from at&t corporate during an official visit to our site:

Everyone knows that the activation fee, the upgrade are completely bogus, nonsense fees. Nobody likes them, not even the employees of at&t.

However, customers tend to be sticklers, they want to try to 'negotiate' to get the lowest possible price. at&t doesn't not negotiate the cost of rate plans, therefore the only way to make customers feel like they are getting a good deal, is to pretend to demand more than you really want by charging fees that you don't really intend to collect.

So the way we accomplish that is by charging completely bogus fees, like the upgrade fee, that we have no intention of collecting, so that when customers get angry, you can t...(continues)

You are 100% incorrect I work for AT&T from a corporate level and we do not I repeat do not waive upgrade fees we are not authorized to. Customers can attempt to call customer service but even they aren't waiving them as much. The intent of the fee in...(continues)

They are REALLY trying to make people switch to Next. It IS FAIR. You only pay so as often as you upgrade - if grandma Eleanor keeps her phone for 3-4 years, she was ALWAYS paying full retail for the phone on the back-end. After the 2 years, everything else was profit for the company - did you seriously think a company could take a $450 hit on a device and still swim?

People, realize, your contracts were nothing more than full retail to begin with. At least this time around, if you own a device and want to add it, it only cost $15 (usually). As long as you aren't a data hog and can use WiFi to do your Netflix and porn, you'll be fine - and even then, you only watch 5 mins of porn so you'll be okay.

But everything you wrote is true! I have AT&T and I am really impressed with not only their network but their customer service. I had Verizon for about 9 years before switching and although their network was good, it jus...(continues)

I am on the next program with all my devices and they don't charge fee's! I completely understand why they charge for these though, when it comes to subsidizing the cost of the phone the carriers don't immediately make $ so they try and get as much as they can up front. The Next program has afforded them AND US the ability to get what we want. They want to make $ off us faster and we don't want contracts but get the choice to get a NEW phone every 12 or 18 months!

This only effects people who sign 2 year contracts - as bringing your own device is waived at the moment.

Whether or not you can understand, nor admit it, you've ALWAYS (ALWAYS) - GOT THAT? ALWAYS have paid full retail for the phone. What, did you expect them to take a $450 loss on a phone and somehow stay in business? No, they just jacked up the monthly bill to make up for it over 24 months.

Now, at least when you're done paying off your device, the *hidden* subsidy goes away. Before grandma would keep her phone for 3-4 years and you'd secretly be paying for a phone that was FAR paid off.

Also, say you want to add a line - It's $15 (for 10GB and above) and you have unlimited everything besides data. As long as you own de...(continues)

The fact that the fee is waived if you sign up for the Jump program only proves that there actually is NO COST imposed by activating a new account that needs to be recouped....which is the traditional (and totally bogus) excuse for the activation/upgr...(continues)

T-Mobile charges a $10 SIM card fee... Where as other carriers that use them provide them free on activation or upgrading. While much lower, the fact is, this is where they have a fee to start service (Activation) but called something else.